The government has rolled out a Tk 800 million incentive programme to provide small and subsistence farmers with seeds and fertiliser in an effort to boost production of 11 crops.  

A total of 690,970 farmers will receive the incentives, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury announced on Sunday.

Each farming family will receive free seeds and fertilizer for one bigha of land.

The funds for the incentive programme will be allocated from the ministry’s budget and will not require additional funds from the government, she said.

The incentives will be provided to encourage the production of wheat, maize, mustard, peanuts, dal, BT brinjal, boro rice, wintertime mung beans and for summertime mung beans and summertime sesame in the March-May season.

Each farmer will get 20kg of wheat, 5kg rice, 2kg maize, 1kg mustard, 10kg peanuts, 1kg summertime sesame, 5kg summertime mung bean, 8kg khesari dal, 7kg of phelon and 20g of BT brinjal seeds for cultivation on 1 bigha of land.

The government will also provide 20kg of DAP and 10kg of MOP fertilizer for rice, wheat, maize, summertime sesame, mustard and BT brinjal cultivation.

It will provide 10kg of DAP and 5kg of MOP fertilizer for the cultivation of peanuts, summertime mung beans, wintertime mung beans, khesari dal and phelon.